It has been traditional for many years for the bakery industry, and the baked confection industry, to bring to the consuming product baked goods and flour confections where butter is a principal flavor ingredient, as well as being a bakery recipe component. Such products may include buns, biscuits, other breads and loaves, sweet confections, and so on. However, the preparation of baked products which would incorporate a butter-flavored chip in the same manner as a chocolate chip - where the flavor permeates somewhat into the baked product and also has a distinct mouth sense when encountered while eating the product--has not heretofore been achieved. Specifically, incorporating chunks of butter into the mix just prior to baking has not been successful in achieving the criteria of flavor and mouth sense, and especially a physical and distinguishable presence.
In the preparation of baked goods and other flour confections by baking, butter is very often a constituent because it is included in the recipe. This may be especially true in the preparation of sweet baked products, flaky baked products such as croissants and other flake pastries, and so on. However, there may be a number of instances where it is desired to have a discernable butter presence, so as to have a mouth sense, such as in small breads, muffins, and certain cookies and the like. However, incorporating butter, such as by shaving or flaking frozen butter into the dough or pastry mix, is not successful because the butter smears or bleeds into the dough and therefore simply becomes a higher butter content in the baked product.
Butter is an essentially naturally occurring substance. It is prepared by separating and churning the butterfat (or butter oil) constituent of whole milk. Certain flavoring constituents, and especially salt, may be added to commercially available butter, but the main constituent is naturally occurring butterfat and butter oils. The flavor of butter is very discernable, and as such butter is very often used not only as a baking recipe constituent as one of the non-dry recipe ingredients by which the dough is formed, butter is also used for its own flavor. However, butter will tend to smear or bleed, whereby the oils in the butter tend to spread and combine with other ingredients, so that there can be no significant mouth sense of butter when it is included in baked products as a recipe ingredient. On the other hand, there is no practical means by which additional butter can be provided with baked goods or other flour confections in the same manner as butter is spread onto bread just prior to its being consumed, for example. However, the present invention provides means by which a specific mouth sense of butter may be derived in baked goods and other flour confections, by providing a physical presence and flavor of butter as a distinctive ingredient in the baked product, notwithstanding that the product has been baked. This is accomplished by mixing into the dough for the baked product, just prior to its being formed or placed into pans, etc., for baking, dry butter-based flake products which, when baked, will provide the flavor and mouth sense of butter. The dry butter-based flake products have a high milk solid content, as discussed below.
It has been noted that butterfat is derived from whole milk. Butterfat may, itself, be generally described as butter oils or butterfat, or clarified butterfat--which may, itself, be termed to be or analogous to anhydrous butter oils. Butterfat may have substantially 0% moisture content, up to about 1% moisture content.
As noted, the dry butter-based flake products according to the present invention have a high milk solid content. Milk solids may, themselves, be derived from conventional milk--whether it be whole milk, skim milk, or butter milk--using conventional milk drying operations that are well known in the dairy industry. Dry dairy solids may generally be classified as being whole milk solids, skim milk solids, butter milk solids, caseins, caseinates, whey, and lactose powders, all of which may have from substantially 0% up to about 2% moisture content. Thus, dry butter-based flake products according to the present invention will be provided in keeping with the present invention, where the dry butter-based flake product comprises from substantially 0% to about 2% moisture, together with from about 20% up to about 60% of dry dairy solids, with the balance being butterfat which has less than 1% moisture content. As noted, the dry dairy solids are naturally occurring milk solids from which substantially all water has been removed; butterfat is derived from whole milk in the first instance; and since it is naturally occurring butterfat it will exhibit standard butterfat solid fat index and melting points, as discussed below.
There remains the question as to how a distinct butter presence, both physically and as to mouth sense, may be incorporated into baked goods and other flour confections.
The present inventors have quite unexpectedly discovered, that if naturally occurring milk solids, as discussed above, are suspended in butterfat or butter oils, and are then otherwise treated as described in greater detail hereafter, then a dry butter-based flake product results which can be baked into baked goods or other flour confections. The flavor sensations and constituency of the butter-based flake in the baked product are quite satisfactory.
It is recognized that the preparation of baked products or other flour confections having a distinctive physical butter presence and the concomitant mouth sense cannot simply be achieved by preparing flakes, chips or grated butter, such as from bulk frozen butter blocks and incorporating them into the bakery mix in much the same way as, for example, chocolate chips are incorporated into baked products. This is because, as noted above, butter will smear or oil off during baking.
One prior art approach is that of FEHR et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,353 issued Jun. 1, 1971. There, a flavored and/or colored shortening material of hard fat having a sharp melting point is used and distributed into the bakery mix. What results is distributed localized areas throughout the baked product, when it has been baked, that have a particular mouth sensation similar to butter. The flavoring materials may include spices, simulated meat, fruit, fowl or vegetable flavors, or other dairy flavors, as well as organic acids to provide sour flavors and the like. The intent has been particularly to provide a butter taste sensation using hard and brittle flakes. The resulting baked product is reported to have identifiable localized areas of the colored and/or flavored flake in spots throughout the baked product that have a discernable taste. It is recognized that there may be some discernable butter-like flavor, but it is also noted that the FEHR et al patent describes only localized areas of concentrated flavor, which is not necessarily a true or real flavor and which might be specifically of a more gummy texture and/or caramelized or salty flavor. Moreover, FEHR et al provide a product which is essentially fat, with very little solid constituent present in any event.
The present invention provides a dry butter-based flake product which does not exhibit the shortcomings of the prior art, and the common bakery experiences described above. Moreover, by providing a dry butter-based flake product, the present invention will provide what may be described as a butter product for incorporation into baked products and other flour confections, where the nature of the dry butter-based flake product may be such that its characteristics such as its viscosity and its ingredient contents may be determined and adjusted or tailored for specific intended uses. In other words, the present invention will provide a dry butter-based flake ingredient for incorporation into such varying products as tea biscuits or muffins which may have a relatively fast baking time--for example, 10 or 15 minutes--at baking temperatures of about 177.degree. C. (350.degree. F.) while also providing other butter-based flake ingredients to be baked into breads or croissants which may be baked for 30 or 40 minutes at temperatures above 177.degree. C.
In order to do so, the process for preparation of the dry butter-based flake product of the present invention must be such that it can be controlled for consistency of results, and controlled for differences between dry, butter-based flake products being manufactured at different times, as necessary.
In order for that to happen, certain criteria are required. Specifically, it is necessary that when they are solidified the formulation for preparation of the dry butter-based flake product must incorporate the use of butter oils that are compatible both with the dry milk solids being used, and with the bakery or other flour confection to be manufactured. Moreover, the butterfat or butter oils to be used in the formulation of dry butter-based flake products according to the present invention should not be such that they will not smear or become part of the shortening or the butter ingredient being mixed into the bakery mix prior to the baking process; and they must be such that when they are solidified they will stay relatively firm during the baking process and yet have a mouth sense in that they will essentially melt in the mouth at approximately 35.degree. C.
A corollary to the above is that, as is now being required more and more frequently and more rigidly, all of the ingredients used to prepare dry butter-based flake products in keeping with the present invention must be compatible with the requirements for controlled ingredient legends and other labelling provisions that are imposed on food products.
It is therefore a purpose of the present invention to provide dry butter-based flake products which are intended for incorporation into baked goods and flour confections. Such dry butter-based flake products as are provided by the present invention may have varying specific formulations, depending on their intended use in a baked product or other flour confection. However, the dry butter-based flake products of the present invention have a significant dry dairy solids content.
The present invention therefore provides dry butter-based flake products that may have defined ranges of solid fat and liquid fat components at defined temperatures, so as to be capable of being incorporated into baked goods and other flour confections and so that the baked goods or flour confections may be appropriately and accurately labelled.
In keeping with the above, the present invention provides processes for the preparation of dry butter-based flake products intended for incorporation into baked goods and flour confections.
Likewise, in keeping with the above, the present invention also provides process steps whereby the prepared dry butter-based flake products may have specific and controlled physical characteristics including the size of the individual discrete flakes being produced.
Finally, the present invention provides an apparatus for the preparation of the dry butter-based flake product where such product having defined characteristics and formulations may consistently be made with high degrees of automation.